In many work environments, particularly those that employ a fleet of machines that cooperate to perform a common task, productivity, efficiency, and profitability of the work environment may be dependent upon a variety of interrelated factors. For example, in mine environments that employ heavy equipment to excavate and transport materials from a mine site to a production facility, the productivity of the mine is directly dependent upon the health and productivity of each machine in the fleet. For some machines, such as transport vehicles and haulers, productivity may also depend upon work environment conditions (e.g., terrain conditions, weather conditions, etc.), as these conditions often affect speed, handling, and traction of the machines.
In some work environments, external conditions may have a significant impact on the profitability of the work environment. For example, some countries impose restrictions on the amount of greenhouse gas that certain types of work sites can emit. Consequently, excessive greenhouse gas emissions may result in fines or other penalties that may significantly reduce the profitability of the work site. In these types of environments, it may be advantageous to control or enhance certain work environment features (e.g., terrain, route distance, etc.), so as to limit the greenhouse gas emissions in these environment. Thus, in order to increase work environment productivity, a method for monitoring and adjusting work environment operating features based on desired work environment operating goals may be required.
One conventional method for adjusting certain work environment operating features is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,936 (“the '936 patent”) to Schricker. The '936 patent describes a method for detecting a change in the condition of a road by sensing a plurality of parameters from one or more machines traveling along the road. The sensed parameters may be used to calculate a resistance factor for each of the one or more machines and determining an average resistance factor for the fleet of machines. If the average resistance factor exceeds a threshold level, a change (i.e., deficiency or fault) in the road segment may be identified and/or corrected.
Although some conventional methods, such as the method described in the '936 patent, may enable detection of changes in road conditions based on performance of a fleet of machines, they may be limited in certain situations. For example, road conditions constitute only one aspect of work environment productivity. Thus, the method described in the '936 patent may be limited to enhancing work environment productivity by correcting deficiencies in the road conditions. However, the method of the '936 patent may not effectively identify and correct other deficiencies in work environment operations (e.g., excessive fuel consumption, traffic congestion, inefficient or underperforming machines, etc.)
Moreover, many conventional methods for enhancing haul route management, like the one described in the '936 patent, are configured to identify and correct a particular work environment problem. In many situations, however, enhancing productivity of the work environment often involves identifying and improving several work environment features and parameters (e.g., haul route design, performance of one or more machines, traffic, etc.) Moreover, different work environments often require different productivity goals, as well as different cost factors. Thus, in order to effectively improve work environment productivity while controlling costs associated with achieving work environment goals, a system and method for identifying problems associated with a plurality of work environment operations, determining how each work environment parameter impacts each problem, and making the appropriate work environment enhancements to achieve the goals in a cost-effective manner, may be required.
The presently disclosed systems and methods for improving haul route management is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.